Dwarfing the diversity of all other animals combined, they have evolved into an estimated five million living species. Insects always win over all the known species of plants, fungi and protozoans including whales and elephants. Two entomologists have now written the first book that chronicles this success story. Resulting from five years’ labor by David Grimaldi of the American Museum of Natural History and Michael Engel of the University of Kansas, “Evolution of the Insects,” has been published by Cambridge University Press. The book conveys the tone that insects are ecologically essential. The New York Times have very well explained it, saying ‘If all humans decided to leave for Mars, taking all the vertebrates with them, the disruption to life on Earth would be incomparably less than the catastrophe that would ensue if insects disappeared. Forests would probably collapse, rivers and oceans would be poisoned, and many other animals would starve.’
Via: New York Times